I have agents ask me whether they should have a new home inspected. We're a little more trusting out here - everybody knows everybody else and new homes are supposed to be "inspected" by the local building departments. I always tell them yes and tell them the story of a home that I did the forensics on - this one is still in litigation.
Now this is a bit extreme - I don't normally cut into walls to see what's happening but in this case, the homeowner was paying to have the structural components checked so we were intrusive.
This picture with the wood studs is indicative of what we found. There was supposed to be a steel post in the corner supporting the beam. In all, 4 steel posts were replace with wood. Two steel beams were replaced.
the client even asked the contractor if he could add another second story bedroom - and he did. Without re-engineering the plans. The walls below the new room are already bowing since they weren't designed to take that load.
The dining room, which cantilevered out about 15 feet was was originally designed to be supported on 5 10-inch diameter concrete pilasters. Instead, there were 3 6x6 wood posts.
As you can see in the picture, these posts aren't below the frost line, don't have the proper footing ( we did more excavation later) and are going to ROT because the contractor buried them in earth - which was going to take the entire room down with it.
I ended up with pages of defects just like this - and worse.
So when anybody asks about inspecting a new home, my answer is an unequivical "Yes!"
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